Bad news first: Most content marketers struggle. Only 30% of B2B content marketers and 38% of B2C content marketers say they are effective.

Here’s CMI and Marketing Profs’ explanation of this chart: “For this survey, we define effectiveness as ‘accomplishing your overall objectives.’ We refer to those who rate their organizations as a 4 or 5 (on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being ‘Very Effective’ and 1 being ‘Not at All Effective’) as the ‘most effective’ or ‘best-in-class’ marketers. The 1s and 2s are considered the ‘least effective,’ while the 3s are neutral.”

B2B marketers seem to be having a particularly hard time. Last year, 38% of them said their content marketing was effective. This year, it’s only 30%. Could content shock be taking its toll? Or maybe some investments in new tactics just didn’t pan out.

Part of the problem is many of us aren’t sure what we’re aiming for. Only 44% of B2Bers and 43% of B2Cers are “clear what an effective or successful content marketing program looks like.” It’s really hard to be effective if you haven’t defined what that is.

There is plenty of good news, too. Here are some factors that can improve your odds, according to the report:

Have a documented (i.e., written out) content marketing plan

Have a document editorial statement

Use the most effective tactics from the charts below:

Despite the struggles, marketers are moving forward. They’re making larger commitments to content marketing. Most of them (76% of B2Bers and 77% of B2Cers) will be making more content in 2016. And half of them will increase spending. Here’s what they hope that spending will achieve:

This report from one of the premiere social media blogs is a must-read for any content marketer. It is entirely focused on social media, but for most of us, social media is a core component of content marketing.

So what’s the story here? Social media ROI is about as elusive as effectiveness is for content marketing. Only 42% of the 3,700 marketers who participated in the survey say they can track the profitability of their social media work. But again, despite those challenges, most marketers will invest in more social media work going forward. 66% of social media marketers plan to spend more time on social media.

My favorite chart from this study is where they break out how much time people spend doing social media based on their company size. Everybody wants to save time on social media, so it’s helpful to see how much time people tend to spend.

Social media is also synonymous with blogging. 45% of marketers said their most important form of content for their business is blogging.

What about the most important social platforms? Not too surprisingly, the primary platform for B2C marketers is Facebook. The primary platform for B2Bers is LinkedIn.

Another really interesting takeaway: Less than half of marketers – 45% – said their Facebook efforts are working. The rest either don’t know, or say Facebook is not turning a profit for them. That’s disheartening, but consistent with other reports. Want to be in the group that is seeing results? Read Guillaume Decugis’s post, Increase Facebook reach without paying for advertising.

This one’s so comprehensive, they offer two versions: One for sales and one for marketing. I suppose when you’re surveying 3,957 marketers and sales people, you might as well go big.

And big it is. The report covers nearly every aspect of what marketers struggle with, want, and how they try to get what they want. Not too surprisingly, one of the key charts in the study names a common foe: Proving ROI.

The report also tracks the “most overrated tactics”, and makes the case that inbound is profitable for all types and sizes of businesses. It’s also one of the few content marketing studies to include curation as a source of content creation. We were happy to see the percentage of marketers who are using curation has ticked up this year. But with only 6% of marketers curating, there’s still abundant room for more curation.

This is another study that’s vast in both the issues it covers, and in how many people participated. 5,000 marketers from around the world gave their input to the study. This is also one of the few studies that gives details on email, mobile and social marketing. It also breaks the results out by country. So if you’re doing global marketing, this is a must-read.

Here are a few of the most interesting charts from the study:

Email has become significantly more important to these marketers in the last year.

So has mobile:

Social media fared unusually well in this study. Most marketers said they get at least indirect ROI from the channel. But note how the social media teams are, on average, larger than the ones in the businesses Social Media Examiner In that study, SME included social media results from entire companies made up of 1-10 people. In the SalesForce study, they’re looking at social media teams of 1-10 people.

Honorable Mentions

It was tough to limit this to only five reports. These other content marketing reports might not be as comprehensive as the five listed above (at least in terms of survey size and how many charts they have), but they have valuable insights all content marketers should know. If you’ve got time, read these too.

This survey has all the usual charts: Budgets, which tactics are used, challenges, best practices, ROI and more. It also breaks out twenty-three different content formats in terms of how they perform at different stages of the sales cycle. And it shows how much content marketers are creating every week, and how often they repurpose that content.

Good information here about how much content is being created year over year, and about how people are consuming that content. This report also has very interesting mobile and social charts, plus research on the points of friction between marketers and creatives.

The easiest way to access the report is to register with Ascend2, then scroll down their list of research studies. Once you’ve found it, this study will walk you through the typical charts of budgets, goals, and challenges. My favorite chart here is where they compare the most difficult content marketing strategies with the most effective.

Did we miss your favorite?

Got a favorite report I didn’t include here? Got a beef with any of these studies? We want to hear from you. Please share your insights in the comments.

About the Author

Pam Neely has been marketing online for 17 years. She's a serial entrepreneur and an avid email and content marketing enthusiast with a background in publishing and journalism, including a New York Press Award. Her book "50 Ways to Build Your Email Marketing List" is available on Amazon.com. Pam holds a Master's Degree in Direct and Interactive Marketing from New York University. Follow her on Twitter @pamellaneely.